While I got my Paladin to 60 asap and my Death Knight followed shortly after - and both of them are rocking at the point probably over half mythic dungeon gear, eager to hit Castle Nathria when LFR starts next week - I've been taking longer on my other alts. Normally, I'd make sure my Demon Hunter, then my Horde Shaman and Rogue, would be the next up, but I wanted to take characters who I was confident would go into the covenants I haven't done yet, so I took the Mage and the Warlock next - Paladin going Kyrian, Death Knight Venthyr, Mage Night Fae, and Warlock Necrolords.
The Warlock is one or two quest chains into Ardenweald, sitting at 57 (likely to hit 58 well before the point where you have to be to progress in the main campaign) while the Mage is at 60, and I've thus had my first experiences of the catch-up mechanics for Renown.
Running in to do the world boss Mortanis (funny story, my Warlock's name is Morcanis) I got a Renown, and then another from a Calling, another from the intro "save 5 souls from the Maw" and then the weekly version of it. I'm at 6 renown now, still needing to do the 1000 anima weekly quest, and I think (if my math isn't off - it feels like there might be a missing one in there) I could be caught up if I dedicated myself to doing so by next Tuesday.
This is pretty heartening. Granted, there's not a ton of stuff to catch up on, Renown-wise, but I imagine that if you hit 60 on a new character several months into the expansion, you're going to be getting bombarded with Renown so that you can get up to speed without too much pain.
Also, as the first character who can actually make rune vessel pieces (the Mage is a Jewelcrafter) I finally got the quest where such recipes are unlocked - it's just the normal "unlock legendaries" quest chain, but with a special addition for, I assume, jewelcrafters, leatherworkers, tailors, and blacksmiths (guess my awesome goggles aren't good enough for your runes, Runecarver?) You still need 100 in your given profession to unlock them, so while the Warlock will be ready to make cloth pieces as soon as he gets that quest, the Jewelcrafter is just 8 skill points away (though I think I have the Solenium he'd need on my main.)
This does make me a little more eager to level my Warrior, as he's my Blacksmith, though I suppose I could spend some of the massive amounts of gold that my callings are earning me. (Also, I sold some Missives made by the Death Knight and got an obscene amount for them.)
So, the Warlock is working on Ardenweald (the Warlock Night Fae ability once again feels tailored for Affliction, like the Kyrian one, though I'm sure it's good - just not as tied into the rest of the spec as the Necrolord one, which makes me feel I'll be happy going with that.) Meanwhile, my Demon Hunter has made it through Bastion, and boy had I forgotten how fun Havoc is. Indeed, the Kyrian Demon Hunter ability is actually pretty potent (and devastating in AoE) even if it's a tad non-interactive - it feels much better for Vengeance, given its massive generation of Soul Shards. Given what I've read in Icy-Veins and such, I believe I'll be going Venthyr on him, which also fits RP-wise (to be honest, I think as a relentless demon-fighter, he might fit more personality-wise with the Necrolords, but unless there's a totally different ability from the Beta, I don't think the Demon Hunter ability is one I'll want to take, and Fleshcrafting is my least favorite signature ability of all the covenants - especially for a melee class.)
I'm glad to see that most profession seem simple enough to level. I managed to get my Warlock's tailoring to 100 purely on the cloth he'd gotten from my other characters. While I don't necessarily want every profession to need to do a million rep grinds to be able to make anything useful, I also think that a skill grind isn't too fun either. Being able to get most of the way to the skill cap while leveling seems fair. I'm hoping Blacksmithing is comparable to the other professions in this regard - it's always seemed like they've made it harder than other professions to skill up. But the Warrior is on the back burner - probably in line behind the Warlock, Demon Hunter, Shaman, and Rogue in my leveling plan.
Anyway, the expansion is still fun! I'm eager to check out Castle Nathria next week, and I'm very happy to know that I've got a new computer coming in January - my current one was new in the first weeks of Warlords of Draenor, and is starting to show its age - Ardenweald in particular forces me to set my graphics to low settings.
No comments:
Post a Comment